Stephen Ayesu Ntim
The National Chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Stephen Ayesu Ntim has descended on former President John Dramani Mahama and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) over their recent statements churned out to deceive Ghanaians.
According to him, the NDC government under the leadership of John Mahama inherited a booming economy from the Kufuor administration in 2008.
Shockingly, he said the NDC government collapsed the economy when they were leaving office in 2016 which caused Ghanaians to hand over power to NPP which fixed the economy before COVID 19 and Russia-Ukraine War struck to disrupt the economy gains.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, April 4 to respond to an earlier address by the National Chair of the NDC Johnson Asiedu Nketiah who accused the NPP government of economic failure, Mr Ntim indicated that “After inheriting a booming economy. Ex-President Mahama and NDC left their successor, President Akufo-Addo a collapsed economy in 2017.”
“Ghana economy was the toast of the world until Covid-19. Before 2020, Ghana was hailed among the fastest-growing economies in the world. But COVID-19 disrupted the growth momentum of our economy and later the Russia Ukraine War. As a result of these factors, Ghana’s economy, which was among the fastest-growing economies in the world, started to decelerate in 2020, and the government has committed everything in its toolkit to regenerate it.
“The ravaging impact of Covid-19 and the Russia Ukraine War on the global economy are visible all around us. But somehow, the NDC has refused to acknowledge or admit this fact to continue misinforming Ghanaians that this government has mismanaged the economy. So, the NDC’s press conference was merely a repetition of their denial of the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia Ukraine War on the economy. The NDC hopes that by consistently propagating this blatant misinformation, it will get enough Ghanaians to come to believe it. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, I am concerned about this deliberate misinformation campaign by the NDC to deny the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia Ukraine War on Ghana’s economy.”
The National Chairman further stated that the Akufo-Addo administration has managed the local currency, the Cedi, well compared to what the John Mahama-led NDC did.
He said prior to the Covid pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, the currency was performing better.
“We managed the Cedi better before the pandemic and the war. The NPP managed the Cedi with an average depreciation of 6.8 percent from 2017 to 2021 compared to the NDC’s record of 18 percent average depreciation from 2013 to 2016.
“We are not particularly happy about the level of inflation today, it has affected our economy badly but the truth is that it is a global problem.”
“The plain truth is that this government has managed the economy diligently and well. The hardships we are experiencing in Ghana are being experienced everywhere because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War. Workers in some of the world’s biggest economies are demanding salary increases due to historic global inflation. It is happening in—the United Kingdom, France and Germany. In the United Kingdom, I was told a couple of weeks ago that they had to ration vegetables and cooking oil. Can you imagine rationing pepper in Ghana?
“The Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris, confirmed the impact of Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War on the United States.”
By Vincent Kubi